Theatre and Culture from Scotland, starring The List's Theatre Editor, his performance persona and occasional guest stars. Experimental writings, cod-academic critiques and all his opinions, stolen or original.

Sunday, 13 March 2016

#Trans @ Pitch

Despite being presented as a 'scratch' performance (that is, an early stage work-in-progress) as part of Conflux's Pitch evening, Emma Jayne Park's #Trans is remarkably polished, with a coherent format matching the content and a cheeky humour seasoning the serious issue of gender identity. Supported by a smart introduction by Eilidh MacAskill, which offered Judith Butler's meditation on gender as a thing performed rather than an essential nature, Park's choreography questioned how movements and facial expressions establish the gender of an individual.

Her head shaved, her clothing loose, Park flickered between male and female posturing. The male more aggressive, clutching the penis, grinning at the audience; the female flirtatious, initially intruding onto the male display with rapid, flirtatious glances. Building from these simple stereotypes, Park's choreography then evolves, transforming her into an androgynous entity, balancing the genders into a fluid movement vocabulary that at once recalls extremes of male and female behaviour and moulds them into a singular presentation of desire.And desire is clearly on the mind of her character - swinging an

arm like a distended cock, or play humping the air, or flirting with the front-row, her creation is sensual and sexually predatory: even the props (a selection of mannequins) are not safe from their attention. While certain gestures evoke one gender or another - she presents her covered breasts at one point - her performance insists on how even those postures strongly associated with the male or the female are simply learnt manners.

Absurd opinions, extended reviews, random press releases from The Arts, half baked ideas, unsuccessful experiments with the format of criticism. Brought to you by the host of The Vile Arts Radio Hour and former Theatre Editor of The Skinny, now working with The List